A lot of garbage and red tape for New Brighton family

Anthony DePrimoThe owners of this house on York Avenue have been plagued by city violations because of the vacant lot next to it.

New Brighton homeowner Mark Lara, 69, is frustrated, furious, and does not know where to turn next. He has already handed over $1,400 in fines to the city for Health-Department violations on property that he does not own, and last week received a written warning that he owes the city another $800.

It's a bizarre tale of an incorrect property address that started seven years ago, and remains unresolved until now.

Lara, a retired NYC Transit Authority carpenter, came to the U.S. in 1960, from the town of Caraz in northern Peru, where spectacular mountains and glaciers mark the landscape. He has lived in his house at 338 York Ave., since 1974, and also owns the adjoining lot with a one-story garage. Fig trees from the former Italian owner still fill in the spacious, meticulously maintained back-yard perennial and herb garden that his wife Shirley tends.

"On the other side of us was a house that went on fire and was torn down a few years after we moved in," Mrs. Lara explained. That site, still an overgrown vacant lot often littered with garbage, is the apparent reason for the costly bureaucratic nightmare that the couple has endured for years.

The first sign of a mix-up came in 2002, when Lara applied for a home equity loan from HSBC bank, to help his son Harold, a 1996 graduate of the College of Staten Island, pay off his student loans. "It was approved, but then the lady from the bank called me, and said that the city had a $1,399.50 lien on my house that I had to pay so the loan could go through," he told the Advance.

The lien represented fines for three violations, plus accumulated interest, for "dirty sidewalk" conditions at 340A York Ave., the address of Lara's street-front garage. The violations were recorded in October and December 1995, and October 1996. The couple said it was the first time that they learned about the citations, and they were astonished.

Lara reluctantly paid the lien, not wanting to jeopardize his bank loan, but since then he has been unable to challenge the city to recoup his money.

"They kicked me from one place to another," he said. He visited the borough president's office, and was sent from there to two other city agencies in St. George, another in Manhattan, and one in Astoria, Queens. No one was interested and stepped up to help, he said.

The next sign of trouble was Lara's quarterly real-estate tax bill for November 2005 to February 2006. He showed a reporter the original document, pointing out the Statement Details that included three separate charges for city exterminating services.

"The city came and put rat poison in the vacant lot [next door], and posted a warning sign. But I got the bill," he said, shaking his head.

It was not until last year that the Laras felt certain that careless city inspectors were incorrectly identifying the overgrown, often-littered, vacant lot on the other side of their house, as 340A York Ave., the address of their garage.

Based on an inspection on Nov. 13, 2008, the Laras received a Notice of Violation (NOV) from the city's Health Department, citing two conditions at the 340A York Ave. address:

"High weeds exists [sic] in that dense weeds approximately three to four feet high observed inside the left fence and exterior of the garage."

The couple was dumbfounded because the violations described conditions on the vacant lot adjacent to their home, not on their property. The NOV required an appearance on Jan. 21, 2009 at 1 p.m. for a hearing before the health department's administrative tribunal at 66 John St., in downtown Manhattan.

"I had to take the day off," said Lara, who now works part-time for Access-A-Ride. He and his wife arrived on time, waited an hour to be called, and were told to reschedule another appointment because the inspector who wrote the violations was not present.

The new appointment coincided with a date when the Laras were away on vacation. Back home, Lara traveled again to John Street to explain and, he said, was told that another appointment date would be sent to him in the mail.

Nothing came until last month, when he received a letter from the tribunal, warning him about the additional $800 in fines. The $800 fine can be traced back to two official documents that Lara showed to a reporter last week.

A health department Pest Control Services inspection on Sept. 29, 2008 identified 340A York Ave. - where the Laras' garage is located -- as a public area with a "vacant lot or exterior" with "rubbish/high weeds." Partially illegible handwritten comments on the one-page form noted "dense high vegetation," and "condition for rodent."

The Lara garage is not a public area: The building occupies the entire front lot, separated from their home by a walkway leading to a covered concrete patio and, beyond that, a mature garden.